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Edith's Streets

This blog records notes about London (and Greater London) streets - what the buildings are, what the background is. These pages have been compiled over many years and from many sources - its not intended to copy from other people's work.Each post represents a square on the Ordnance Survey grid -and the vast majority of information is culled from map based source material - Ordnance Survey, A/Z, etc.

On some inner city squares only a quarter of each square is done because of the volume of material involved

Please add your comments and corrections - I am sure there are lots of mistakes - and my idea is to build up a correct record interactively

Red- it is (hopefully) there nowBlue - its interesting but its goneNo colour, same as the text - don't know. needs to be verified

Saturday, 13 August 2016

Riverside - south bank west of the Tower. Chertsey Abbey

Abbey ChaseAbbey Chase Farm, also called Home Farm. This was at one time a listed building but seems to have suffered from neglect. A recent sales document notes only a barn and stables.
Abbey Chase Farm cottage. Probably 19th

Abbey GardensAbbey remains – some paving is said to remain here and north of this are remains of the Transepts and the Lady Chapel. This area is now covered by housing.

Abbey GreenAbbey Barn. It seems to be mainly 17th and/or later. It is a long building of brown brick probably built to house workers dismantling the Abbey. The west and south walls are medieval, made of conglomerate and sarsen blocks to form a chequer-board effect. It was later probably used as royal stabling as part of Beomond Manor Farm and by 1900 it was a builder’s yard. In 1935 it was bought up to stop it being developed as houses and became home to the Abbey Barn Youth Club until 1970 when the Club closed. The Barn remained empty and following lobbying by members of the Runnymede Association of Arts In 1978, Surrey County Council sold it to the Acorn Children’s Theatre Trust who used it until 1986. In 1987 the building was put up for auction. Despite local attempts to purchase it for the community it was sold and has been used since as offices.Abbey Barn Cottage. This was sold by the Acorn Theatre In 1981.Cloister Garth (Music School) 17th house

Abbey River
This is an artificial Leat off the Thames built to power the Abbey’s mills of Abbey.

Burley OrchardBridge with ornamental iron balustrades and iron lamp standardThe Orchard CentreBurley Orchard. Built 1874-5 by William A Herring, the Chertsey iron founder. There are many iron-work features, including an ornamental conservatory – everything possible is in iron.2 Lamp posts in the drive and by then approach

Burway Ditch
Artificial waterway built as part of the monastery water management system.

Chertsey Abbey,Benedictine Abbey. The abbey, dedicated to St. Peter, was originally founded by St. Erkenwald in 666 AD and he was the first abbot. It is said to have been on an island – and it is supposed that this first building was relatively small. As the first religious hues in Surrey most of north-west Surrey was granted to them King Frithuwald and Saint Beocca was buried there in 870. In the 9th it was sacked by the Danes and the minks killed. It was refounded by King Edgar in 964 and again in the 12th. It is this set of buildings of which traces remain today, Under John de Rutherwyk there were lots of improvements - mills, bridges – he died in 1347 and became an extremely wealthy institution. Henry VI died and was first buried there in 1471. The abbey was dissolved in 1537, and the community moved briefly to Bisham. The site was then given to Sir William Fitzwilliam and was later sold. There are however many reminders and remains of the abbey here and elsewhere. Stone from the abbey can be found in Hampton Court, in Oatlands and in the Wey Navigation. In the mid-19th century the site of the abbey was excavated and an account of the investigations with a ground plan, was published in 1862.Moats. The abbey was inside a series of moats or ditches defining the inner and outer precincts.Inner precinct. This held the church and main buildings.To the north. East and south the inner precinct is surrounded by a seasonally water filled moat. To the west, east and south west this has been completely infilled but.Outer Precinct. To the west is an outer precinct bounded to the south and west by a moat and to the north by the river. It includes the malt- house and bake house, some sections of precinct wall, dividing the inner and outer courts survive. It is built of stones forming a chequer-board effect.Second Outer Precinct. This is to the east of the inner precinct am dos bordered to the south and east by a moat. It includes fishponds which survived as rectangular earthworksRidge and Furrow. This runs parallel with the river in the northern part of the area and represents the remains of medieval cultivation.Whiting's Plot or Burial Ground. This is to the north of Abbey River and believed to be an additional cemetery area,Moated island – this is to the north of the outer precinct. It contains six fishponds, three of which are visible as earthwork. The other three have become infilled and are buried. The surrounding moat, is partially infilled

Colonels Lane
This developed as a customary right of way through the former precinct and beyond. In l735 the occupant of Abbey House put up gates, which were torn down by the local peopleAbbey House. In about 1700 the abbey precinct was in the possession of Sir Nicholas Wayte who built Abbey House which fronted on to what is now Colonel's Lane. It was demolished in 1821The Abbey. This was built in the site of Abbey House.Abbey Lodge. This was built between 1855 and 1861Abbey House. This was a 19th building west of the lane which was bunt down in 1964.
1 Long brick 18th building with a warehouse type door near the centre of the 1st floor. Now housing. it faces the GreenDovecote. This came from the farmyard of Abbey Bridge Farm
and has been rebuilt here having previously been in the garden at Burley Orchard. It dates from around 1800 and is in cast iron and wood. There are four tiers of entrance holes with
landing ledges. Along the top are projecting metal flowers.Garden of Abbey House – there is a medieval doorway in the garden wall and remains of monastic ovensPart of the Abbey precinct wall in the open ground to the west of the lane once in the grounds of Abbey House, The wall now forms part of the Freda Atkins Memorial Garden- she was Chair of the Chertsey Society from 1979.

Ferry Lane
This lane led north from Chertsey to the ferry at Laleham.Abbey Kilns – some evidence of them found west of the lane. Tiles from the abbey – which could have come from the kiln – have been found and are now in the British Museum. Some show the legend of Tristan and Iseult. Individual letter tiles dating to the second half of the 13th have been found here – they could have been assembled to form texts on the floor.Abbey precinct wall –some fragments remain in this area.Gateway to the Recreation Ground. Stone pillars.The Old Coachworks. Motor works in old farm buildings,Abbey Bridge Farm Barn, Medieval tythe barn with Stone and brick walls, Massive tie-beams remain. This is now used as part of the Old Coachworks motor business.Abbey Bridge. Over the Abbey River.The Burway Ditch runs in a culvert under the laneChertsey Water Treatment Works. The works was originally constructed in 1900 by the Woking Water and Gas Co. and was extended and upgraded during the 1970s and 1990s . In 2003 it had a new submerged membrane plant added. It treats water pumped from two sources Abbeymeads, a gravel well water source and River Thames water fed from the Northern Burway reservoir.

Laleham BurwayGolf Course. The Golf Course covers most of Laleham Burway which they bought from Lord Lucan – this is mainly in the square to the north,

M3London to Southampton Motorway. This part opened in 1974, as part of the Sunbury - Bracknell section of the motorway opened.

Monks Walk
A path said to have been used by the monks from the abbey from around AD666 going from St Mary's Church in Thorpe to Chertsey Abbey. In the mid-20th it was disrupted by the motorway but most of the original walk still exists and is now a public footpath.

St Anne’s RoadJohn Ryder Training Centre – Construction Industry Training Centre. According to a plaque on the building this is the old parochial infant and Sunday school opened in 1899. It appears later to have been used as a parish hall by St. Peter’s Church.

Windsor StreetAbbey Moat, the length along the street here has been filled in12 Curfew House. Built in 1725 and dated on the keystone, as a school. This was the master’s house. There is a plaque ‘Founded by Sir Wm PERKINS Knt For Fifty Children clothed and taught
Go and do likewise " Pevsner thinks it is ‘Ordnance Vanburgh’ and that it looks like some of the buildings on the Arsenal site in Woolwich.24 this early 18th building was once the Sun Inn.33 The Cedars. This has been Chertsey Museum since 1972. The building dates from 1815. In 1554 it was the Angel Inn, and the house replaced it 1815. There is a q9th extension to the rear. In the 18th the garden contained two large Cedar trees, and a grotto. Most of the garden was sold off in 1958 for housing and the two cedars were felled. In the early 1970s, the Olive Matthews Trust (who own the Olive Matthews Collection of Costume) bought the building and opened it as a museum with Chertsey Urban District Council,The Old Swan. 18th pub building with fancy iron work on the outside